Helminth musings

Stardate 8/19/2004: Our heroine is less obsessed with her helminth issues, but has begun musing. What could her "pets" have been.

So, she turns to her two faithful guides. No, not an astral guide or a tour guide. None other than Abram S. Benenson of the 16th edition of the Control of Communicable Disease Manual and Adel A.F. Mahmoud of the 2nd edition of Tropical and Geographic Medicine.

Abram and Adel muse that our heroine might have had Ascaris. Our heroine's travel companion made much of the amount of pork consumed. Put it was Asia. Pork was everywhere. Then there were the fresh veggies. We don't think it was a tapeworm. It didn't look like one. But then again, our heroine was afraid to get too close.

Trichinellosis was an option as well as Taenia solium according to Abram and Adel. Now thinking about it, it may have been T. solium. OK, so it is a tape worm. Without confirmation, there is no way to tell. But the symptoms (mild, nonspecific abdominal complaints and short worms) are consistent, as is the epidemiology. Maybe it wasn't eggs that were passed. Maybe it was cysts?!? A diagnosis, no. But maybe another piece of the puzzle.

Any thoughts?